@ Sunday Times Books LIVE

Craig Higginson’s evocative new novel will leave a powerful afterimage on the reader’s imagination

‘In prose pared to the bone Higginson explores the complex nature of love. Most importantly, we realize love can become what you will it to be and that once you’ve grasped it, you should guard it with all your life.’- Fred Khumalo, author of Dancing the Death Drill

‘In its conception and execution, The White Room is remarkable … Evocative and dreamlike, yet all too nightmarishly real, this is a story so moving that it leaves a powerful afterimage on the reader’s imagination.’
- Craig MacKenzie

‘Craig Higginson is at the vanguard of the latest and most exciting novelists in South Africa, offering a barometer of the best to be expected from the newest wave of writing in the country.’
- André Brink

South African playwright Hannah Meade arrives in London for the opening night of her new play.

She has arranged to meet Pierre, the student she was in love with when she taught English in Paris. During their time together, they lied their way towards truths they were too young and inexperienced to endure. Perhaps this time they will have a second chance.

As the reader is drawn from contemporary London back to Paris on the eve of the war in Iraq, the mystery of past events is brought to vivid life in a series of dramatic, intriguing and deeply moving encounters. Written in layered, stark prose, The White Room lays bare many of our assumptions about language, identity, memory, loss and love.

CRAIG HIGGINSON is an award-winning playwright and novelist who lives in Johannesburg. He is the only South African writer to have won the prestigious University of Johannesburg Main Award for South African Literature in English for two consecutive novels. His writing has been performed, produced and published around the world. Higginson’s previous novel, The Dream House, will be the English IEB Matric setwork in South Africa from 2019 to 2021. The White Room reaffirms Higginson as a leading figure in contemporary South African literature. It is his fourth novel to be published by Picador Africa.